Carrie Fountain and the 'Daring Political Act' of Writing About Motherhood

Carrie Fountain at the 2010 Texas Book Festival. "Writing poetry has always been, quite simply, about trying to make sense of the experience of being in the world," she says.

Larry D. Moore [Creative Commons]

Carrie Fountain is searching for something.

The Austin-based poet recently released "Instant Winner," her second book of poems. In it, she reflects on parenthood and captures vignettes of moments from everyday life.

Fountain will be reading at the Texas Book Festival on Sunday, Oct. 26. She spoke with Texas Standard's Emily Donahue about her book in advance of the festival.

"I think poetry just inherently feels more personal. … A lot of poetry does start with the 'I,' the self, and so it feels very intimate. I think that’s one of the things that draws people to poetry, is that it feels intimate, it feels like a confidence, it feels like you’re being kind of taken in by the poet. That's the kind of poetry that I love."

Title poem "Instant Winner" – named for a kid-friendly game at an Austin-area grocery – "ironically refers to the experience of parenthood," Fountain says. "All of the sudden this happens – the baby is born and everything changes. But at the same time … it is anything but instant. Anything that has to do with parenting is anything but instant."

"I think it's important that women poets and women writers, that we write about the experience of parenthood and motherhood without feeling like it’s something that is light, or … it's not to be taken seriously as a subject matter for poetry," Fountain continues. "That's just old. … I believe it’s a really daring political act to write about our bodies and our experiences with children."

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Austin parent Kari Anne Roy has attracted national attention and started a conversation about parental supervision.

In a blog post, Roy wrote that a well-intentioned neighbor escorted her 6-year-old son to her front porch and advised her that it was dangerous for him to be playing alone outside. Roy says her son was playing near a park bench 150 yards from her house, which, she says, is clearly visible from her porch.

After the incident, she was visited by an Austin Police officer and later she and her children were interviewed by an investigator with Child Protective Services. She says she felt humiliated and angry, and that because of the incident — and the subsequent questioning from CPS — her three children felt as if they had done something wrong and "don't feel safe outside."

Some 250 authors are descending on Austin for the festival this weekend. And Texas Standard and KUT have sat down with a dozen of them. Here's a roundup of authors appearing at the festival, both big literary names and under-the-radar authors.

(Editor's note: This post used to contain nine interviews – but we've since recorded a few more and updated accordingly.)